Comments on: Against narrativity

By: Geoffrey Bevan

Geoffrey Bevan — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 23:00:29 +0000

Only the moving part of the mind (manas in Hindu philosophy) can construct a narrative. Neither the past nor the future is here now. The still part of the mind – Buddhi – has no idea what a narrative is. Our essential nature is surely only available to our awareness in the present. ‘Narrative’, by definition, is a defence against the present (the belief that somehow the past or the future contains the truth about our identity). The question as I see it, is, what is it that we fear from the present? – where, surely, and only, awareness of our true nature resides.

By: cary bertoncini

cary bertoncini — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 04:29:50 +0000

I think Strawson’s argument against narrativity presumes–incorrectly in my opinion–a narrow and specific definition of narrative as linear. I think there is plenty of narrative possibility for nonlinear or episodic representation. Hypertext literature is one excellent example, but even literature going back to the 1960s provides numerous examples, i.e. Kurt Vonnegut’s “Slaughterhouse Five,” Richard Brautigan’s “Trout Fishing in America,” or William Burrough’s “Naked Lunch.”

By: Sebastian Franck

Sebastian Franck — Fri, 09 Jul 2010 08:35:20 +0000

My own experience denies your last equivalence between the narrative mode and abstract concepts. My personal mode is that I tend to order my life and my self in abstract terms as opposed to concrete stories. It is not that I “live in the now”. It is more that I structure things in hierarchical categories rather than more or less linear stories. I can’t seem to remember events from my life in detail like other people, but I can categorize and tell you what I’ve learned and how I apply the lessons to new events.

By: tom

tom — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 14:02:08 +0000

Correct! Corrected! Thanks!

By: Ignacio Prado

Ignacio Prado — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:30:21 +0000

I think the last line is supposed to read “__without__ the mediation of abstract concepts.”

By: Lilian Nattel

Lilian Nattel — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 17:53:42 +0000

That’s fascinating. I’m of the “life is
a story” ilk. I’ve read and assumed
that was human nature. But of course it
makes sense that there are many diff’t
natures. I think one of my children is
most likely more an episodic type.